Imagining career resilience research and training from an indigenous knowledge production perspective

Abstract:

More often than not, higher education curricula expound Western-oriented
epistemologies of psychology. Trained psychologists may thus not be appropriately
equipped to provide career counselling that is suitable to a resource-scarce environment,
nor enriched with a heritage of knowledge related to customary career resilience
practices. Rather than enabling clients, one could argue that existing career counselling
training, and subsequent practice, may in fact hinder clients’ ability to adapt and flourish
in their (career-)lives. The thesis of this article is that an indigenous knowledge
production imperative affords a way in which embedded values, practices, patterns and
concepts synonymous with career resilience in South Africa can be documented
systematically. Indigenous knowledge production urges researchers to appreciate what
lies at the heart of everyday occurrences (such as career decision making), and be
familiar with what is embedded in long-standing habits, rituals and patterns (related to for
example career choice). In this regard I discuss both indigenisation and establishing an
indigenous psychology as research schemas to develop ecologically-just curricula for higher education training. I explain the epistemological premises of indigenous
knowledge production and present research strategies framed within indigenous
knowledge production.